This past Wednesday, the Boys track and field team ended the state tournament at the Meet of Champions in Pennsauken, New Jersey.
With eight seniors competing in some of their last meets of their high school careers, there was a lot at stake.
The 4x800m relay of seniors Cole Varner, Kaleb Steockmann, Jack Hill and junior Brody Toriello started off the meet strong for the Blue Devils with a 3rd place finish in a time of 7:52. This mark qualifies them for the New Balance nationals meet the weekend of June 21.
After the race, Toriello, who was the anchor leg, said, “I think did a pretty good job of holding off fourth place. When I got the baton in third there was a large gap between us and second place, however, fourth place was not too far behind so my strategy was to go out hard and drop them.”
This strategy proved successful for Toriello as he was able to narrowly beat the fourth-place team by about a second while running a personal best of 1:55.96 in the process.
Shortly after the 4x800m came the 400m hurdles, where Tyler Pietrewicz ran an impressive time of 56.27. Although it was not a personal best for Pietrewicz, his season will also continue to the New Balance Nationals meet, where he will be running the 400m on the distance medley relay.
Then came the most exciting moment of the meet for Westfield, the 800m dash. They had the defending MOC champion senior Ryan Daly running for them, and although he was not able to back up his indoor MOC title this time around, he was still able to claim fourth place in the entire state, coming a little over a second behind first place in a time of 1:52.82.
Heading into the national meet, Daly said, “I have unfinished business in the 800m, I definitely haven’t reached my full potential yet this season. The goal all season has been to get that school record, so I’ll have two great chances at the national meet to get it.”
Around the same time, the Westfield track events were wrapped up, and the field events began. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils senior Noah Rubenstein fouled all three of his throws in the shotput and therefore did not get a mark on the day. Although this was a very disappointing way to end his season, Rubenstein still has a plethora of great opportunities because he will be heading to Fordham University in the Fall to continue his throwing career.
Following suit would be senior Lincoln Meyers, who threw the Javelin 157’ 3” and senior Andrew Geocos, who competed in the pole vault, jumping 12’ 6”.
The Devils will be sending five guys to the New Balance Nationals meet, where head coach Chris Tafelski believes that the 4x800m relay has “A very good chance of earning All-American.”
